Stroll through Scripture for Sunday August 4, 2024

Based on Daniel 2:24-49

Let me start by saying that I’m excited to take the next month and focus our attention on the book of Daniel.  In seminary, I took a class that focused on this book of the Hebrew Scriptures and it was one of my favorite classes.  The book of Daniel offers a wealth of richness and symbolism, written in an important time period in history.  

Before we get into the selected passage of Scripture for Sunday, let me offer a few broad insights about Daniel.  How we read Daniel matters.  There are some who read the book as telling the story of a historical figure Daniel as events occurred.  When we do that, we are ignoring the context in which the book was written and gets its significance and meaning.  That would be like reading the Declaration of Independence now without any understanding of what was going on in the nation when it was written.  

Daniel is the only book of the Hebrew Scriptures that we can narrow down when it was written to a very precise time period – 167-164 BCE.  The context of the time was that Antiochus IV Epiphanes was the emperor of the Seleucid empire, which controlled the area where Israel is now.  The emperor offered sacrifice to Zeus in the Hebrew Temple, desecrating the Temple.  As a result, there was an uprising that threw off the Seleucids, and a cleansing of the Temple (which is the story of the origins of Chanukah).  It leads to the Israel’s approximate 100-year reign of independence before the being occupied again.  

The book of Daniel is about Israel being occupied by a foreign empire imposing its religion and culture on Israel and how God judges that occupier as well as how the occupied are to live in occupation.  It is apocalyptic literature.  But there are two types of apocalyptic literatures – one that tells a story set in stone that cannot be changed.  And another that warns about the possible future if a society doesn’t change its ways – offering an opportunity to avert the consequences.  Daniel falls into the set-in-stone type of apocalyptic literature. 

Something else that is really important to understand about Daniel is that the book offers stories that mirror each other throughout the book.  The book is written in Hebrew and Aramaic, leading different faith traditions to consider different parts of the book to be considered part of the Canon of Scripture.  

As we turn to this Sunday’s reading we hear about Daniel being the interpreter of the king’s dream.  Daniel is set in the time of the Babylonian captivity – when Israel was conquered and controlled by Babylon and the Israel VIPs sent off to Babylon to serve the empire – leaving behind the poor to fend for themselves.  Daniel ends up in the king’s court.  He interprets the king’s dream, which is about the future.  It’s a dream including a statue made of various material, each one being less sturdy than the one before it.  The interpretation is that these are empires and that each one will be less impressive than the one before it.  Each will fall.  

Nebuchadnezzar, throughout the book of Daniel, is mocked and shown to be arrogant, twisting in the wind as the situation changes.  This is in contrast to how he has been shown in history as some kind of wise ruler.  The kings of Babylon in Daniel represent Antiochus IV Epiphanes.  Each description of the Babylonian ruler is showcasing Antiochus’ own failings and his eventual downfall.  The beginning of Daniel is setting the stage which the rest of the book will play out – showing that empires, emperors, and what they stand for are attempting to replace God and God’s reign.  It is showing that that God will judge empires, and that God’s way will prevail.  

Questions for reflection:

• What do you know about the book of Daniel?  How have you been taught this pivotal book?  Has that been helpful to you?  
• The beginning of Daniel is setting the stage for the ultimate judgement of empire and what empire creedal beliefs are all about – that might makes right, that the strong survive, and that the ends justify the means.  What do you think about this?  How does society deal with these ideas today?
• Daniel is a hopeful book – in the end God wins, not empire.  What message of hope does this offer for us today?